Gloeophyllum sepiarium

What You Should Know

Gloeophyllum sepiarium is an inedible wood decay fungus. When fresh and very young its cap is more or less orange, but as it matures brown colors replace the orange from the center outwards and it may even have a greenish tinge. The orangey gills are fairly distinctive. It is grown in thin, dark brown/green brackets on dead conifers. Often found on wood in lumberyards, the fruiting body grows for only one year, and produces spores in late summer and autumn.

Other names: Conifer Mazegill, Rusty-Gilled Polypore, Yellow-Red Gill Polypore, Yesquero de las cercas (Spain), Lenzite des clôtures (France), Zaun-Blättling (German).

Gloeophyllum sepiarium Mushroom Identification

1. Ecology

   Saprobic on the deadwood of conifers and, occasionally, hardwoods (especially those, like quaking aspen, that grow in conifer-dominated ecosystems); causing a brown rot; growing alone or gregariously; appearing in woods, but not infrequently found on lumber in urban settings; annual or reviving to be perennial; summer and fall (and overwinter in warm climates); widely distributed in North America.

2. Cap

   Single or compound (and then either fused laterally or with loosely arranged lobes arising from a central point); up to about 12 cm across and 8 cm deep; semicircular, irregularly bracket-shaped, or kidney-shaped; flattened-convex; velvety to hairy; rugged; with concentric zones of texture and color; at first yellow to orange, becoming yellow-brown to dark brown or nearly black toward the point of attachment but usually remaining yellow to orange on the growing margin.

3. Gills

   Irregular and often fusing; fairly close; often mixed with slot-like pores; edges yellow-brown becoming darker brown with age; faces creamy to pale brownish, darkening with age; up to about 1 cm deep.

4. Flesh

   Dark rusty brown or dark yellow-brown; corky.

5. Spore Print

   White.

6. Chemical Reactions

   KOH black on flesh.

7. Microscopic Features

   Spores 9-13 x 3-5 µ; smooth; cylindric; inamyloid; hyaline in KOH. Basidia often elongated. Cystidia cylindric; up to about 100 x 10 µ. Hyphal system trimitic.

8. Similar Species

   Include Trametes betulina, and Trametes versicolor.

Gloeophyllum sepiarium Medicinal Properties

Gloeophyllum sepiarium Taxonomy and Etymology

Synonyms: Agaricus sepiarius Wulfen 1786 (basionym); Daedalea sepiaria (Wulfen) Fries 1821; Lenzites sepiaria (Wulfen) Fries 1838; Merulius sepiarius (Wulfen) Schrank 1789.

The term “sepiarium” comes from the Latin “sepiárius” = of the cuttlefishes, of the ink (sépia = cuttlefish, ink + ater = dark, black).

Sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Quartl (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Photo 2 - Author: Holger Krisp (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International)

Photo 3 - Author: Jerzy Opioła (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Photo 4 - Author: Andreas Kunze (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

Photo 5 - Author: Anneli Salo (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)